THE GOOD: Sometimes you watch a game and you just know early on that it is not the Rays' night. It is easier on the liver.

THE BAD: Andy Sonnanstine against the A's this season. The Rays have only played the A's 5 times and yet two of their worst losses are at the hands of the green and gold. In addition to last night's 8-1 drubbing, the A's got the beat-down on May 21 in Oakland to the tune of a 9-1 score. Sonny was the starting pitcher in both games. The only game worse than either of those was the 13-2 pounding just before the break in which we were thankfully in St. Lucia sans baseball. Oh yeah. Sonnanstine started that game also.

THE TELLING: Why was Houston Street brought into the game with an 8-1 lead? Might it be because he was being auditioned for the Rays brass? Managers will often bring closers into non-save situations if they have not been used in a while, but it had only been 3 days since Street last pitched. We counted 15 times this season in which Street had more than 2 off-days. The only explanation is that the A's wanted to make sure that Andrew Friedman and Co. got a first-hand look at Street before the trade deadline.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA...

• Jason Bartlett will likely be activated after today's afternoon game. It looks like Ben Zobrist will not be demoted after all which means Jonny Gomes could be the odd-man out. That would leave Zobrist or Willy Aybar to play right field against lefties. [Bradenton Herald]
• And yet Marc Lancaster tells us that some in the organization think that Jonny Gomes can be the right handed bat that the Rays desparately need against lefties. [Tampa Tribune]
  
• As per our assertion in yesterday's "Hangover" that Grant Balfour screamed "fastball!" to Dioner Navarro in the 8th inning of Monday's game...Someone close to the team told us that Balfour says that he yelled "Fuck!" and not "Fastball!". We went back and looked at the tape and it looks to us as if there are either two syllables or two words. So, either Balfour is thinking of a different situation or he does yell the F-bomb with a second word attached. [Rays Index]
  
• Outs Per Swing is doing a great job keeping up with all the Rays trade rumors...Normally we would be more on this stuff, but we would be surprised if the Rays make a move for anybody significant. Maybe a middle reliever and maybe a utility infielder. The rest is just speculation because the Rays are in contention and have a deep farm system. [Outs Per Swing]
• Brittany Ghiroli points out that the Rays have still been able to score runs with several top hitters struggling thanks to their speed on the basepaths. [MLB]
  
• Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports gives the Rays 2/5 odds of making the playoffs. That is 3rd in the AL behind the Angels (a lock at this point) and the Red Sox. [Yahoo! Sports]
• ESPN is running one of their silly "Sports Nation" specials looking at the all time best player for each team. They are taking votes for each team. Follow the link for your chance to vote for the Rays' all-time greatest player...It is pretty sad when Roberto Hernandez is considered one of the five best Rays in franchise history. And it might seem silly, but one could make an argument that Evan Longoria is already the best player in franchise history. [ESPN]
• Reader J.J. pointed us to this auction for the game-used uniforms and equipment from the Rays turn-back-the-clock game recently in which the Rays donned the threads of the St. Pete Pelicans. [MLB]
  

THE GOOD: Little Ball and Long Ball. The Rays are not big on "Little Ball", but it sure helped in the 6th inning. An infield single by Ben Zobrist (OK, it went to the OF, but it bounced over Scott Rolen's head), a bunt single by Aki Iwamura, a dribbler down the line by Carl Crawford (it was fair no matter what the Jays announcers said), was followed by a Carlos Pena bloop single to score the first run of the game. Of course, funny thing about silly "Little Ball". That only gets you one run. One out later, Evan Longoria connected on the 10th pitch of his at bat for his first career grand slam. Game Over.

THE BAD: Bean Balls. With 2 outs in the 6th inning, and up 5-0, Dioner Navarro bunted for a basehit. Roy Halladay then tried to hit Ben Zobrist. Two innings later, Navi would be hit by a pitch. Since when is a 5-0 lead in the AL an "insurmountable lead" in which a team should no longer try to score? That was BS by Halladay and even more BS that they would still be fuming 2 innings later. The Jays announcers talked about how "you just don't [bunt] in that situation". This peeves us to no end. As a longtime proponent of the "unwritten rules" the one "unwritten rule" that is idiotic is the "no bunting with a big lead" rule. In the 70s a 5-run lead might have been insurmountable, but how many 5-run leads did the Rays blow last year? If the Jays think that a 5-run lead is "too big" for bunting then we suggest they stop throwing breaking balls and go take an effin' shower. The Rays better sweep these bitches. And if Sunday's game is a blow out in the 7th inning or later, a Blue Jay is going down and they are going down hard...Anything produced by the Blue Jays. Whether it is the in-inning commercials (no shit, they actually show commercials during an inning) or the runner in the 9th inning that went from first to third and then was apparently thinking about "tagging up" and going home on the same play. You can tag up on a basehit? Seriously? We can't make this shit up.

THE TELLING: Of the players in the top 15 in baseball in stolen bases, only Alex Rios (14) has hit into more double plays than either BJ Upton (10) or Carl Crawford (9)...Despite assertations by several websites this week that BJ Upton was not struggling, Joe Maddon moved BJ Upton down to the #7 spot in the order...What? The national media doesn't notice that the Rays once again have a 1.5 game lead in the Easy despite a 7-game losing streak? Of course not. So much for those, "Rays are coming back down to Earth" stories from last week.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA...

• Joe Maddon was also a little upset about Dioner Navarro being hit by a pitch in the 8th inning. [St. Pete Times]

Maddon said. "Maybe in 1922, you wouldn't (bunt) because nobody is going to hit a home run. But in the year 2008, people hit home runs. And you could see how they came back. Once again, in baseball, for me, there are moments when people definitely mentally move at a glacier pace, and they really have to get beyond it. That's what I think about that situation. And it stunk."

• We are not really sure what this writer is talking about. Les Levine is critical of those that blame Terry Francona for using Scott Kazmir in the All-Star game. In fact, we don't recall anybody blaming Francona. We said that Francona and the Red Sox benefitted, but we also understand he had to use Kid K. And the Rays actually praised Francona...This is just another example of a writer in the mainstream media trying to invent a controversy. [News-Herald]
  
• Man, Yankees fans hate Seth McClung more than we do. [The Big Lead]
• Jon Heyman says the Rays have not talked to Oakland about Houston Street although he suggests the Rays would have a good shot at landing the A's closer. [SI.com]
  
• We proposed the question a couple of days ago, now Joe Maddon is emphasizing the point...Grant Balfour is closer material. [MLB]

"He's got that kind of stuff," Maddon said. "And the biggest thing to me is the makeup. The closer makeup -- it's different. Those last three outs of the game are different. People can argue as much as they want, but they are. And the last out of the game is always the most difficult. ... I think, from my perspective, [Balfour is] growing into that makeup where he could do that one day. Definitely his stuff is good enough."

THE GOOD: Ben Zobrist. In the second inning, BenZo made a Jason Bartlett-esque play in the hole, turning and making a one-hop throw to first for the out. Later, with the Rays trailing 1-0 in the 7th and one of the game's best pitchers on the mound, Eric Hinske drew a walk on a 2-out, 3-2 check swing that very easily could have been ruled a strike out. Zobrist followed with a home run to give the Rays the lead for good, and saved the Rays from having to deal with questions of an extended losing streak...James Shields came out with a chip on his shoulder and proved once again that he is the Rays stopper. His one blemish was a long home run, which he is prone to give up. But you just have to hope they happen with the bases empty and last night that was the case...Grant Balfour came on in the 8th and after falling behind Alex Rios 3-0, he came back and struck him out to end the inning. In the 9th inning, he struck out 2 for the save...Eric Hinske saved a potential run-scoring opportunity when he made a running grab for the second out of the first inning.

THE BAD: The Rays had first and second with no outs in their half of the first when BJ Upton was caught looking on a belt-high fastball for the first out. One out later, Evan Longoria would strike out on a pitch in the dirt...BJ Upton had an awful game at the plate. After going down in the first with his bat on his shoulder, with a pitch he would normally plant in the right-center bleachers, he struck out in the 3rd. This time he swung the bat, but was horribly late on the fastball. Upton is a player with some the quickest wrists in baseball and should never get beat by a fastball. Right now, he has no confidence and is at the plate hoping for breaking balls that he can handle...In the 3rd inning, Carl Crawford broke his 0-26 skid and then promptly got picked off first base.

THE TELLING: We will never know for certain, but Ben Zobrist's home run may have saved the Rays' season. Imagine if the Rays lose that game at home to a mediocre opponent, without scoring a run, and extending their losing streak to 8 games into the second-half of the season. That would be tough to come back from for a young team...If you were a betting person and you were going to bet on who would be closing for the Rays in 2010, would you bet against Grant Balfour?...Scott Kazmir is now officially set to make his second-half debut on Monday. Does anybody else find it strange that Kid K needs 5 days rest after throwing 14 pitches in the All-Star game, when he would normally only need 4 days after a regular start throwing 100+ pitches?...Of Ben Zobrist's 13 hits for the Rays, 7 have been for extra-bases...Attendance was 23,706, which is a decent number against the Jays after a 7-game losing streak.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA...

• Troy Percival says he feels "perfect" after throwing a 30-pitch batting practice session. [Tampa Tribune]
• Baseball Analysts defends Dioner Navarro as being a legit all-star. [Baseball Analysts]
  
• USA Today ran a feature story outlining the Rays' second-half quest for the playoffs. [USA Today]
• ESPN.com took a closer look at the struggles of Rocco Baldelli. The most interesting note is one we had not seen before. Apparently doctors have finally found a cocktail of medicine that has Rocco feeling better...Could Baldelli be the right handed hitting outfielder the Rays are seeking? [ESPN]
  
• Skyking162 feels Houston Street would be a perfect fit for the Rays. [Skyking162]